NYC blogger brunch extravaganza!

Neil and I are planners. A Virgo and a Taurus suffering from wanderlust need to have at least one vacation planned at all times. So I have known about last weekend’s trip to New York since nearly before I was blogging. I have certainly known about it since before I met all the wonderful people that food blogging has introduced me to. So it was a wonderful end to my first year of blogging to be able to meet some new friends and reconnect with some I have already had the pleasure of spending some time with.

I first started blogging over on Blogger through a New Media course at Writers.com where I met the elusive and secretive K A B L O O E Y, whom those of you who read my blog regularly will know is a faithful and regular commenter. We bonded over technical glitches and issues (and sometimes scratched our heads at how demanding and frankly, rude, some of our fellow classmates were towards the awesome teachers, Amanda and Mike). In any case, we started commenting on each others’ blogs as part of an assignment to encourage our fellow bloggers and we kinda never stopped. Over the past year we have become friends in that weird online way where you think you totally know the person but can never be quite sure.

I was thrilled when my secretive blogger friend agreed to brunch and excited to meet her husband (aka Phinneas) and her adorable daughter (aka Moochie – yes, they all have aliases on her blog!). I tried to book a few places but in typical New York style, these restaurants either did not take reservations (and with a 5 year old, we kinda didn’t want to be waiting for ages for a table) or simply wouldn’t take reservations for “such a large group”. I kid you not – apparently 5 people is too large for a few places to accommodate. I searched around for a while and happened upon the Stanton Social, on the Lower East Side. Sounded perfect as 1. They would take reservations and 2. They serve small, tapas-style plates which I thought would be great for sharing and great for Moochie.

We started out with some glamorous and interesting beverages:

Left: Black Magic $10 – Guinness and Gaston Chiquet Brut Champagne (Neil’s – interesting. Not as beery as you would think but definitely a one glass kind of drink!)

And the food? We ordered a number of small plates to share and at the outset, it looks reasonably priced but it can add up, since some of the items are single (mini grilled cheese to share between 5? Errr… don’t think so!) so we ended up adding a few items onto our order making it around $200 plus tip for 5 people and 6 drinks. So not cheap but I suppose by NYC standards, it was, well, standard…

I think my favourite dish was the pierogies – might have had something to do with the truffled crème fraîche! And I found the French onion soup dumplings fascinating – it was like balls of deep fried soup in cheese. You definitely didn’t want more than one or two of these – very rich!! The place has a funky vibe about it – there certainly were a lot of very hip people enjoying brunch well into the afternoon – but I loved that they welcomed our 5 year old guest with just as much respect as anyone else. Not all restaurants are like that.

It was fun trying out all the different dishes and watching Moochie enjoying pretty much every bite – she certainly is an adventurous eater! – but mostly it was fun to meet my first ever blog reader and commenter who is not a family member (!) in person!

After brunch, we headed to a nearby hole in the wall gelato place that K A B L O O E Y had earmarked to bring us to:

Delightful flavours (basil!) and reasonable prices – a “small” scoop – more than enough for most people – was $3.

Mooch polished hers off nearly before her dad had finished paying!

So, was this meeting just like I had expected it to be? It sure was! Meeting my secretive friend felt like meeting up with an old friend. Which I hope she will become! You can read K A B L O O E Y ‘S version of our brunch here.

On Andrea’s recommendation, we met at Northern Spy Food Co., again on the Lower East Side and just open since November 2009. According to their site, Northern Spy is dedicated to serving and selling the best products sourced from the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions. They believe that this corner of the United States is filled with outstanding vegetable and fruits, incredible artisan foods, sustainably produced meat and fish, and more than a few great things to drink. Their mission is to hunt down these delights and bring them to Northern Spy for their customers to enjoy.

Here we all are (except MaryAnn who had to dash off to work!):

Christine, Lauren, me, Andrea.

The interior of the tiny restaurant is quite charming:(Errr… yes this is a sugar bowl. It’s cute. I thought it needed a photo. Lauren totally got it!)

The food… We only ordered four different dishes between the eight of us, and some sides (biscuits and corn bread – to die for!) and a salad to share.

The food was all very tasty, very fresh and beautifully presented. My scrambled eggs was a huge serving and I only ate probably half the eggs. The potato flatbread was delicious – like chips on bread 🙂 Neil and the other guys enjoyed their “brisket” though it was not the shredded meat we were all expecting – more like lardons, but still apparently VERY tasty going by how fast it was devoured by each of them! LOVED the kale salad and it’s on my list of things to try when I get more kale in our organic delivery box than I know what to do with! The polenta with mustard greens was delicious (thanks Lauren for the bite!) and again, something I would like to try at home. Andrea’s chicken and egg sandwich, whilst tasty, had an overly cooked egg and I think it would have been a better dish with a more runny yolk. I really enjoyed the blood orange mimosa and whilst Andrea and Lauren’s husband’s were brave enough, Neil chose coffee over the beer float which apparently was more like a dessert than a beer.

A great brunch all in all lots of photos and laughs and even a recap of the New York Dolls the previous night from MaryAnn for Neil who didn’t make it out to Brooklyn for the show! Bonus! Would definitely go back here for brunch if I lived in NYC – go early, it’s tiny, but definitely worth the wait.

Looking forward to seeing Andrea in a few weeks in Toronto where I will get to show off my little neck of the woods and hopefully I will get to see the others sooner rather than later! Thanks ladies and gents for coming together to celebrate my birthday!!

41 Responses to NYC blogger brunch extravaganza!

What a great time in NYC! I love it there and wish I could get to visit more often. The food is so awesome. Isn’t is fun to meet bloggers that you have “met” online? That was one of the best parts of Camp Blogaway! Glad you had a big time for your celebration.

What a wonderful post, Mardi. The first part was written with such depth of feeling that I was touched. The second was just a delightful gift to all of you. I have already seen Andrea’s post and knew you had all spent time together. What a wonderful fun time. Food does bring us all together. You gals can now have that foundation to grow from and with and who knows where it will take you? Maybe on a travelling tour or a joint website….
🙂
Valerie

I guess I’m a Cancer, but a Taurus at heart since I’m always planning our vacations too! Loved getting together with you and meeting Neil in person too! Can’t wait to see you and meet Conor in Toronto!!

wow, what a fun weekend! so glad you got to meet some of your online bloggers friends – i’d have loved to have been at a table with all of that foodie expertise in one place. and such delicious looking dishes to try. i laughed when i read what you’d written about tapas and the final bill – i always feel the same way – “what? how could we have spent $140? we only had a few small plates . . .” 😉

What a terrific post! From that first beautiful photograph, to shots that really captured my daughter, to the montage of our dishes, revealing them to be a complete and utter drippy cheesefest (although my favorites were the two non-cheesiest: pierogies (any conveyance for truffled creme fraiche would have made the cut, though) and the fish tacos. Oh, yeah, and the mac and cheese. OK, so I’m a cheesewhore. Forgive the vulgarity, friends of Mardi, would you? I think the Northern Spy get-together was a bit less caloric, but it certainly looked just as fun.

Thanks for the big bump for someone who is wondering where all this is going. Cool friendships! I just met a couple people at a winemaking conference last weekend that I am hoping to stay connected to. Having a passion can lead to wonderful things.

I really really want to like Guinness, and try some every now and then to see if I’ve magically developed a taste for it. I never have. Still, I’ve never tried it in such a champagny drink, perhaps this is what I need!